Ashes of Tempe Woman's Dead Husband Stolen During Burglary, Victim Reaches Out to Public for Help

Karen Dory and her Husband (right) stand with their family in an old photo

Karen Dory

"Cowards."

That's how Karen Dory described the people who snuck into her Tempe home and stole her husband's ashes last month.

On June 2, Dory's East Fairmont Drive home was burglarized. The unknown suspects stole what she referred to as "memories' -- family heirlooms and jewelry. But what mattered most to her was also taken: a wooden urn, with gold trim, holding the ashes of her husband of 25 years.

This morning, the elderly woman, wearing round-rimmed glasses and a pink floral shirt, sat shaking inside the Tempe Police Department asking for help from the public.

"It was devastating that someone could be so cowardly to steal someone's ashes," Dory says during today's press conference. "It was just devastating that they managed to take [the urn] from my home."

There are no leads as to who entered Dory's home -- police are referring to the incident as a "random act of burglary."

However, Tempe police are looking for two men who were seen using Dory's credit cards. The stolen cards were used 30 times since they were taken and the two men were caught on video surveillance using them throughout Tempe and Mesa.

"These [burglars] knew what they were taking," Tempe Sergeant Steve Carbajal says. "They weren't taking an iPod, they weren't taking a DVD player. There's no way you can convince anyone that they didn't know what they were taking."

Dory's husband, Grant M. Dory, was a "proud man" who served with the U.S. Air Force in World War II, during which he was captured by German soldiers and held as a prisoner of war.

Years later, he volunteered to again serve, this time in Vietnam -- much to his wife's dismay and admiration.

"He was an honorable man and that's what they stole from me," Dory says. "They opened everything in my home. No other senior citizen has to go through this and I want them caught and behind bars."

None of Dory's stolen items have been found or returned. Tempe police are urging anyone with information to call the department at 480-350-8311 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.